2020 early vote total exceeds 2016 early votes

The number of people casting an early ballot in the presidential election now surpasses those who voted early during all of 2016.

That’s more than 58.6 million people who have cast their ballot with eight days to go before Election Day. The total of early votes cast either in-person or by mail in 2016 was 58 million according to the Associated Press.

According to the U.S. Election Project, a data collection project run by a professor at the University of Florida, the total number of votes cast so far for the 2020 election is roughly 43 percent of the total number of votes cast in the 2016 election including early votes and on Election Day.

Democrats have been dominating early voting, but Republicans are slowly narrowing the gap. The opening of early voting locations in Florida, Texas and elsewhere has piled millions of new votes on top of the mail ballots arriving at election offices as voters try to avoid crowded places on November 3 during the coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump has convinced many of his supporters they should not vote with mail ballots. Over the weekend, the president voted early in-person in Florida.

One out of every 4 of the voters is either new or infrequent, a sign of a potential record-setting turnout.